


Asajj Ventress and Her Tiny Time-Travelling Conscience

by shadowsong26



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, Unconventional Format, au outlines for the win, crossposted/imported from tumblr, outline-format fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-17 07:43:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16970586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowsong26/pseuds/shadowsong26
Summary: We all love time travel fics, right? Here’s one with Luke. Tiny, precious, ten-year-old Luke.Who accidentally travels back in time to the last year/year and a half of the Clone Wars.And lands on Ventress.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One of several AU outlines originally written on my writing tumblr, now crossposted to AO3 because why not. These outlines are not at all in my usual style, and are basically overviews of AU concepts that, for one reason or another I don't necessarily intend to write as a true/fulltext story (hence the silly, if descriptive, title; a lot of my initial working titles for fics end up being like that). Though that is subject to change; [Jedi of Valdemar](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1183370), for example, started as one of these...
> 
> Anyway, this is one of my favorites, so I figured it was a good place to start! There is a second part to this outline (and possibly eventually more) which will probably go up before too much longer.

  * SO, Luke is off exploring/goofing off, as bored kids do, and he comes across a narrow, winding little canyon he’s never seen before.
    * “Huh,” he thinks. “Could’ve sworn I knew this part of the desert better than this.”
    * Naturally, he decides to see where it leads. He finished his chores early today, and there’s still a few hours before dark, so he has time. Adventure!
    * Except then things get…weird.
      * He could  _swear_  he’s only been walking an hour, but it’s suddenly dark. And, when he turns around to retrace his steps, all he sees is solid rock.
        * “I’ve got a Bad Feeling™ about this…”
    * There’s no way to go but forward, so he does. Especially when he catches a glimpse of a campfire flickering up ahead.
      * He knows there’s a good chance whoever built it is Not Friendly–-he’s not an idiot–-but he is  _beyond_  lost, he’s got no supplies…he figures it’s worth taking a chance. At least peeking a little closer. So he heads for the fire to ask for help.
  * And there, he finds Ventress! Ventress has just finished a job.
    * This is a few weeks after her and Obi-Wan vs. Maul and Savage.
    * Why is she camping in the desert? …reasons.
    * So, this random kid comes up to her. This, bright, shiny,  _supernova_ -in-the-Force kid.
      * ….okay, then.
      * Ventress really does not have time for this shit.
    * When he asks for her help, she considers telling him to get lost. See above, re: no time for this shit. Also, she’s really, _really_ uninterested in babysitting a brat who was stupid enough to wander off in the desert like this.
      * Except the alternatives to keeping him are killing him (which would be…pointless, really; also she’s not super-interested with killing a random kid who’s no threat to her at this point in her timeline, unless she’s being paid for it), or sending him off to a slow death via desert or Sand People (which is just  _lazy;_ if you’re gonna kill someone, freaking  _do it_.)
        * Besides, maybe his parents will pay her if she brings him home. Not a  _lot_ –-he’s dressed like a small-time farmer-–but, hey, every penny counts.
    * “You can stay here tonight,” she finally says. Might as well keep her options open.
    * He brightens. “My name’s Luke,” he offers.
    * “I don’t care,” she grumbles. “Go to sleep.”
  * Things get…messy…the next morning.
    * See, that bounty Ventress just collected? Someone else thinks it was  _his,_  and resents her poaching.
    * He and a bunch of his heavily-armed friends track her down, catching up with her and Luke just as they’re breaking camp.
    * Naturally, a fight ensues.
      * Ventress is  _exceptional,_  but vastly outnumbered.
      * Luke, on the other hand, is tiny and inexperienced, but a) he knows the desert, b) he’s a decent shot, and c) he can hotwire a speeder in under thirty seconds.
      * Suffice to say, with Luke being a major contributor, they kick some ass and escape unharmed on a speeder bike Luke stole from one of the other bounty hunters.
    * Ventress grudgingly admits that the brat was kind of useful back there, and he possibly just saved her ass a little bit–-or at least spared her some inconvenient and painful injury–-so maybe she shouldn’t demand a ransom after all.
    * She  _sighs,_  and instructs him to pull over so she can drive–-kid’s good, but she has her dignity to think of–-and tells him she’ll take him home, make sure he gets there safe, then take the bike and leave.
  * Things get weird again when they get to the Lars homestead.
    * Luke has her stop at the edge of the property. “This isn’t right,” he says, biting his lip. There’s supposed to be another building right there; he and Uncle Owen just finished putting it up last season. And the closest vaporator is an older model; one he vaguely remembers trying to climb as a toddler, before it was replaced.
      * Also, he’s pretty sure that old man is his step-grandfather, who died before he was even  _born._
    * “What about it?” Ventress asks. She can feel the Force swirling around them, around  _Luke,_  like ripples spreading out from a stone dropped in a pond.
    * “This is my uncle’s farm, but it’s  _wrong.”_
    * And he sort of-– _sort of_ –-has a clue, because there’s Stories, about people wandering into the desert and coming back to find that years have passed in a night. But things are a different  _kind_  of wrong. He’s never heard about anyone going  _backwards._ Besides, that’s all they were–-stories. Right?
    * He takes a deep breath. “What year is it?” he asks, after a long minute.
    * She quirks an eyebrow and tells him.
    * “That doesn’t make  _sense!”_  He blurts out what year it’s  _supposed_  to be.
    * Which…actually  _does_  make a  _weird amount of sense_  to her. Because of the way he casts ripples in the Force, if nothing else.
      * And, honestly, she’s seen weirder crap than time-travelling ten-year-olds. She led a  _zombie army,_  for crying out loud.
    * Luke is freaking out a little bit, so she slaps him to get him to  _shut up_.
    * She points out that, while ideally he gets back to his own time, he still needs to survive until he figures out what the hell happened, let alone how to reverse it. “Lucky for you, you have a home where you can wait all that out.”
      * (A part of her knows that’s a stupid idea-–whatever brought him back here, either it’ll work in its own damn time or he’ll need information he sure as hell won’t get on tiny farm in the middle of nowhere on freaking Tatooine.)
    * “They don’t know me yet,” he says sadly, scuffing the ground a little.
    * _….no,_  she insists to herself. She  _does not need_  a kid tagging along, especially one this bright with power who has  _no idea_  how the world works. At least in the here and now.
      * But he’s quick on his feet, and keeps a level head in a crisis.
      * And he  _is_  a decent shot.
      * And one hell of a getaway driver.
      * Besides, she can  _always_  ditch him later if he gets too annoying. Changing her mind in the other direction would be a lot harder.
    * “Fine,” she grumbles. “You can come with me. For now.”
    * “Okay,” Luke says. Where else would he go, anyway?
  * And thus begins the highly entertaining saga of Asajj Ventress luring ten-year-old time-travelling Luke Skywalker into a Life of Crime.
    * Except, as the weeks and months pass, it becomes less her leading him into a life of crime (…well, it  _kind of_  is; he’s really, really good at stealing cars and Being a Distraction), and more her evaluating jobs based on how Sad Luke looks when she does something _really_ unethical.
      * _What,_  she thinks,  _what the hell is this. Why do I give a damn what the brat thinks? I did not sign up for a portable external conscience! I am leaving him behind at the next port, I swear._
      * Except somehow she never does. She picks jobs that won’t disappoint Luke, and he uses his share of the profits to get shiny things that would make their ship  _so cool, Asajj_.
      * Eventually, she gives up and accepts the inevitable. For as long as Luke is stuck in the past, he’s  _hers_.
        * (She wishes, sometimes, that she could take him back to Dathomir, and introduce him to her sisters.)
        * (…important detail I forgot to mention before: she doesn’t know his full name. He didn’t give it when introducing himself, and she never bothered to ask.)
    * They probably have an Encounter with Boba Fett at some point.
      * Possibly Cad Bane or Hondo.
      * Maybe even BB!Han and/or Lando because why not.
      * So many possibilities…
  * Fast forward a bit. Luke and Ventress are hanging out on Coruscant, when she sees a familiar face with a  bounty attached.
    * (Anakin’s had some… _weird_ …dreams the past few days. Not  _bad,_  not threatening, just…weird. Ever since he got recalled to investigate the Temple bombing. They’ve taken second place to said investigation, since they don’t seem to be  _urgent_  or anything, but–-he’s maybe a little bit distracted.)
    * (Luke’s been dreaming, too. He told Asajj about them. She tells him to keep track of them, and tries to guide him through looking for what actual useful information might be in them, but dreams have never really been her strong suit…)
    * Anyway, Ventress tells Luke to stay in the apartment, and goes to Investigate.
    * The first bit, with Ahsoka, goes mostly as in canon.
      * With an added incentive for her pardon–-if she’s free and clear, she can get Luke the help he needs, to figure out his dreams and find his way home.
        * (Honestly, she’s sort of surprised he hasn’t caught any eyes yet, shiny and powerful as he is. Jedi really  _are_  blind idiots.)
        * (...wait, didn’t Dooku’s Master live on Coruscant? …maybe she should take Luke somewhere safer…)
        * (After she helps Skywalker’s brat and earns her pardon.)
    * The part where she gets jumped by Barriss and loses her lightsabers does, too.
      * Except she called Luke to let him know she was on her way home. And when she doesn’t turn up, he goes looking for her.
    * And then Anakin tracks her down.
      * They fight; Ventress does her whole “Ahsoka and I have a lot in common. My master abandoned me, and that’s exactly what you did to her.”
      * That’s when she senses Luke getting close.
        * And, suddenly, it  _clicks._
      * _Talk fast,_  she tells herself, because there’s _no way_ this conversation ends well if Skywalker sees Luke now, with Tano still in play. (Because if he gets distracted and delays and fails to save his apprentice because of them…)
      * She gets out what she knows as quickly as possible.
      * Except Anakin senses him, too. And Ventress suddenly got tense and very to-the-point, with none of her usual banter.
        * But Ahsoka  _needs_  him right now; he has to fix  _that_ first.
        * But whatever’s going on  _here_  is Important; he knows that with every fiber of his being.
        * Besides, if Ventress is brushing him off, if she’s  _lying_  to him–
      * Anakin is thisclose to strangling her again when Luke comes charging in.
        * “Asajj!”
        * “I  _told you_  to wait for me in the apartment,” she snaps, trying to get between him and Skywalker before things get even more out of hand.
      * Anakin is VERY CONFUSED right now because what the hell is going on okay that’s definitely the presence I felt approaching but none of that explains why the hell Ventress has a  _kid_  with her.
        * Let alone why this kid feels so  _familiar._
      * Luke peers up at Anakin with big, puzzled blue eyes, trying to answer some of the same questions in his own mind.
      * “Don’t you have an apprentice to save?” Ventress cuts in, putting a hand on Luke’s shoulder and pulling him behind her.
        * (Luke tries to wriggle past her; settles for peering out from behind her back.)
      * “Ventress-–” Anakin starts.
      * “Well?” she prompts. “And isn’t that rescue  _time sensitive?”_
      * He continues to hesitate a breath longer. But she’s right. He  _knows_  she’s right. 
      * “Maybe we can help,” Luke pipes up.
      * That, at least, seems to get through Skywalker’s thick skull. “No, I’ve got this,” he says. Then he glowers at Ventress. “But after I talk to Barriss–-”
      * “I’ll be here, Skywalker,” she says, then, realizing her mistake, claps a hand over Luke’s mouth before he can blurt something out and hold the Jedi here any longer, and wriggles the fingers of her other hand in Anakin's general direction. “Run along now.”
      * He  _almost_  rises to the bait, then glances at Luke and turns and leaves again.
    * Ventress relaxes once Skywalker’s gone, and lets go of Luke’s mouth.
      * “He is  _not_  a navigator,” Luke says, sounding thoroughly awed.
      * “……no,” she says. “Who told you he was?”
      * “My uncle,” Luke says. “He doesn’t talk about him much. He died before I was born.”
      * Ventress has a Very Bad Feeling™ about the future.
        * And she does some quick mental math.
        * Oh  _karking hell._
      * She takes Luke back to the apartment, and starts grilling him for details. Which she now realizes she probably should have done a long damn time ago.
  * Anakin, meanwhile, goes back to the Temple to confront Barriss. He’s still at least partway focused on that kid in the alley, which might slightly affect the outcome of their duel.
    * In the end, though, she  _does_  still get captured, and Ahsoka’s innocence is still proved, though.
    * And Ahsoka still  _leaves_.
    * So he’s still reeling, on several levels, when he goes back to look for Ventress and the kid.
      * He doesn’t have to look too hard; she lets him find them in an alley not too far from where they separated.
        * “Are you okay?” Luke asks.
        * “Sure,” he lies.
        * Luke looks up at Ventress, uncertain.
        * “Not here,” she says, and leads the way back to her apartment.
        * “I keep dreaming about you,” Luke blurts, as they walk. “I mean, I  _think_  I’m dreaming about you? It’s all sort of vague.”
        * Anakin thinks back on his own weird dreams the last few days, and nods. He has  _some_  kind of connection with this kid, and he can almost–
          * He stops, in the middle of the street.  _No…that’s not possible._
        * “Not  _here_ ,” Ventress hisses. Luke takes his hand and tugs it.
        * They get to the apartment, and Luke confirms what Anakin has started to guess.
          * “I’m Luke Skywalker,” he says. “I’m from the future. And I’m your son.”
        * For a minute, Anakin just stares at him, because  _this can’t be real_ ; he and Padme are  _so_  careful, and time travel  _is not a thing._
          * But he can  _feel_  the truth of what Luke is telling him.
      * Ventress waits until he settles, then follows up with a bombshell of her own.
        * “You know I’m not your friend. Or your Order’s. But I am  _Luke’s_  friend. And based on what he’s told me, about how and where he grew up–-raised by people  _I_  had never heard of, and believe me, I know who most of your friends are. So we think something awful is about to happen. We don’t know  _what,_  exactly, but a  _lot_  of people are going to die.” She sighs. “And I suppose we want to help you stop it.”



 

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We left off with Ventress and Luke dropping one hell of a bombshell on Anakin. And we will get back to them, I promise, but first, let’s go back (forward?) and look in on what happens when ten-year-old Luke vanishes into thin air…

  * So, ten years in the future (and roughly six months in the past; time travel is  _weird),_  Ben Kenobi finds out that Luke has disappeared.
    * He does not panic. He is very good at not panicking.
      * (As much as he really wants to.)
    * He sends a brief message along a channel he hasn’t used in a decade; letting Bail Organa know there is A Problem, but they’re still half a step shy of the  _true_ nightmare scenario.
      * (i.e., there’s no actual evidence that Luke was found by the  _Empire,_  or Vader as an individual.)
      * (but he’s still  _gone._ )
    * He then goes to see Owen.  To coordinate, at least, though he’s still optimistic enough to hope for actual collaboration. However much the two of them clash, on any number of things.
      * The two of them have their most civil conversation in years. Remarkable, how a crisis brings people together.
        * (Honestly, though, he’d rather fight with Owen again than be in this situation.)
        * (And he knows they’ll go back to butting heads once Luke is home and safe. As they always have in the past, even after extreme moments have forced them together. And that moment cannot come too soon.)
      * Together with Beru, they divide up the likely places where Luke might have wandered off on his own and run into trouble. Ben even attempts to contact A’Yark, but he has no idea where she is now. If she’s even alive. If the moderate good will he had managed to establish with her so many years ago would be enough for her to help him now.
    * As Ben wanders through the desert, searching, there’s something shimmering on the edge of his awareness. Not Dark, but not like anything he’s sensed before.
      * (he asks Qui-Gon, but he hasn’t experienced anything of the kind, either)
    * On instinct, he turns in that direction, and comes across a gorge that he knows wasn’t there before. Granted, it  _has_  been several months since he went through this area, but it doesn’t seem like a rock feature that’s been simply buried in sand for years and come uncovered in a storm. And something like this does not appear in mere  _months._
      * And he can hear—voices, maybe? Music?  _Traffic?_  Not sounds he expects to hear in one of the more remote parts of Tatooine’s desert.
      * He closes his eyes, and weighs his options. If Luke went through that canyon, it  _would_  explain how he’d managed to vanish so completely, with no hint of danger beforehand.
      * But if he  _hadn’t,_  and Ben went through there and ended up—he had no idea where he’d end up, other than that he would no longer be in a position to protect Luke if that were the case.
      * Still, despite the risks, everything is telling him to go through the canyon, so he does.
        * (Just like with Luke, it seals up behind him once he’s partway through. No turning back now, even if he was having second thoughts.)
        * (Also, this is a Magic Time-Travel Canyon, it doesn’t have to make sense or go to the same time/place twice. It goes where it wants.)
    * So, Ben steps out of the canyon and into…an alley on Coruscant?
      * This is…maybe not the  _last_  place he expected to end up…?
      * …no, it’s pretty much the last place he expected to end up.
        * (And now he’s back to the nightmare scenario because if  _this_  is where Luke went…)
        * (…on the other hand, Coruscant feels— _strange,_  and  _far_  more familiar than it should, after just over a decade under Palpatine’s rule…)
  * MEANWHILE back in the past, Ahsoka has officially left the Jedi Order.
    * She’s been just sort of wandering for a few hours, since walking away from Anakin on the Temple steps. Trying to figure out what to do with herself.
      * Do I stay here on Coruscant? I need money, probably. Uh. What resources do I have to draw on, that aren’t—
      * Hey, wait, is that Obi-Wan?
      * …I think it is, but that’s—weird. He looks a  _lot_  older than he did a few hours ago…
    * She decides to approach him, despite how unsettled she still is and the fact that she  _just left_  (and what if he was one of the ones who voted to expel me? No, I don’t think he was, but—) because why is he down here? Did something go Horribly Wrong?
      * (did Anakin do something incredibly stupid to blow off steam and get himself blown up again?)
  * Ben is still reeling when he hears a familiar voice calling his name; one he hasn’t heard in a long, long, time.
    * “…Ahsoka?”
    * “I thought it was you,” she says.
      * And now  _he’s_  confused. She’s much more subdued than he remembers.
      * Also, Togruta age at approximately the same rate as humans, but she is still clearly in her mid-teens—
        * …… _wait._
    * It doesn’t take him more than a split second to process and accept this.
      * (Time travel, after all, is  _far_  from the most unbelievable thing he has experienced.)
    * “What just happened?” he asks, after that split second.
    * “I was about to ask you the same thing,” she says.
    * “No, I meant specifically. What—I need to know where I am. Can you…”
      * He trails off; takes in her missing lightsabers, her missing beads, and where they are.
    * He doesn’t really need her answer at that point, but she still gives it.
      * “I left the Order. Like…four hours ago. I’m not sure it’s really sunk in just yet. But you  should know that, what the—what’s going on, Obi-Wan?”
    * And he doesn’t answer her right away, because just now he’s having a Moment.
      * Because, on the one hand, here is one of his nearest and dearest who clearly needs a hug/some kind of comfort.
      * On the other hand, Luke is still missing.
      * On the  _other_  other hand, he’s back in the past. And he has…uh…well, several months at least, possibly as long as a  _year,_  he’s having a little trouble lining up the calendar in his head because—
      * _He can fix things!_
        * Anakin isn’t too far gone yet, he  _has_  to believe that.
        * He can  _save_  him. He can save  _everyone._
      * But Luke is still missing, and that  _has_  to be a priority.
        * Or, alternatively, he could  _also_  just go and stab Palpatine in the face right now. The idea has a certain appeal.
      * No. No, he needs to coordinate with other people, people who are actually from/more recently familiar with this time, make sure he doesn’t somehow screw things up even worse. Palpatine and Dooku may have had some kind of contingency plan, after all. And a power vacuum could be...well, not  _as_ bad as the future he's trying to prevent, but still Bad.
        * Also, he  _has_   _to_  find Luke.
    * The question then becomes, who does he contact?
      * …he doesn’t even know how to  _approach_  all of this with the Council.
      * And Padme is…Padme is not an option for the same reason.
        * (How can he tell her how badly everything ended in the world he knew.  _How_  can he break her like that.)
      * Bail is...possibly an option? But they aren’t necessarily particularly close yet, if he's even on Corucsant at the moment; Ben can't recall; and he doesn't want to take the time to go to Alderaan. So reaching out to Bail is probably not the _best_ option, but he holds onto that thought for now.
      * Honestly, the smartest thing might well be to contact  _himself._
        * Except, he realizes with some chagrin, he can’t recall his old comm frequency. And he certainly can’t wander into the Temple, into his old rooms, and say “good evening, I am you from the worst possible future, let’s put our heads together and stop the world from ending.”
      * He could—
        * No. He has no idea how he’ll—he knows, sooner or later, he’ll see—
        * He can’t  _start_  there.
      * He could, theoretically, just operate with himself and Ahsoka. Yes, that’s probably the best option; he can leave out strategic details like he’s already planning to do with Luke…
    * Ahsoka, meanwhile, is sort of taking this all in and…
      * “Okay, this is  _super weird._ ”
      * “Obi-Wan is like twenty years older than he was FOUR HOURS AGO and he’s talking about ‘I have almost a year’ and…uh…”
      * “Look, I am  _trying_  to go find someplace to figure out who I am and what the hell I’m going to do/be now. This is  _not exactly helpful_.”
      * Naturally, she decides to call Anakin. Because who else does she call when Obi-Wan is Being Weird?
        * (Granted, this situation more often goes in the  _other_  direction, but still.)
  * So, Anakin, as we have seen previously, is having A Day.
    * (And was  _slightly_  distracted during his duel with Barriss which may become relevant later.)
    * But his commlink chimes, and it’s actually not Obi-Wan again.
      * (He’s been ducking Obi-Wan’s calls—his Obi-Wan, the one he knows, the one from this timeline—since the trial because he had to track Ventress and that kid down and HOLY SHIT WHERE DO I START)
      * (Also, he figures he should probs talk to Padme before he talks to Obi-Wan.)
    * ANYWAY a call from _Ahsoka,_ though—while he really doesn’t want to pull his attention away from the issue at hand, this is not something he can ignore.
      * (Maybe she changed her mind maybe she’s coming back)
    * “Hey, so, uh, Obi-Wan’s here with me and things are very weird.”
    * “I can’t—um, I know I’ve been ducking his calls but I can’t right now.” 
      * (Ben has another MOMENT in the background when he hears Anakin’s voice.)
      * “He’s been calling me all day but things are…things are  _really weird_  here, Snips. Tell him…tell him…tell him I’ll…um…”
    * “…okay, see, now it just got weirder, because he’s been with me for a while and he hasn’t called anyone since we ran into each other…”
    * “…okay, except, he  _definitely_  called like five minutes ago. But I didn’t…I don’t even know where to begin to explain what’s going on right now. There’s things I haven’t…Um.” He stops. He can’t really tell Ahsoka about him and Padme, not before he tells Obi-Wan, and not before he tells Padme about Luke.
      * (Ventress  _stop laughing at me_.)
      * (Uh. Luke, I’ll—um, I’ll introduce you to my friends later, um, give me a minute, okay?)
        * (shit shit shit how do I even talk to a ten-year-old let alone MY ten-year-old  _why do I have a ten-year-old)_
    * “Look, the–the short version is, apparently time travel is real and I’m—”
    * Ben’s attention is immediately caught and he gestures for Ahsoka to pass him the commlink.
    * She does.
    * He braces himself. “Anakin?”
    * Anakin is silent for a moment. “I…”
      * And then EVERYTHING comes spilling out.
      * “So apparently I have a son in the future and I swear I was going to do this right, I was going to tell you everything, but then the war happened and I couldn’t—”
        * (or, well,  _almost_ everything; here’s what he doesn’t say: “we don’t know how but based on everything he’s said things are going to go very very wrong and I think I’m going to die in the next year and normally that wouldn’t really bother me but why isn’t he with Padme, or you, or hell even Master  _Windu_  how the  _hell_  did he end up with my _stepbrother_ on _Tatoooine”)_
      * “It’s all right,” Ben says.
        * (because  _this_  part is; Anakin’s relationship with Padme; he’d known from pretty much the moment they came back from Naboo, after all, though not the  _extent_ of things until some time later; either way, he’s always been willing to turn a blind eye and that— _maybe if I’d actually_ said _so the first time around, he wouldn’t have been so dependent on Palpatine, maybe—_ no, he can’t think like that; he can’t blame himself for Anakin’s—for  _Vader’s_ —decision. He can only try and make things better now.)
      * “But I need to know,” he continues, shaking that off. “I need to know—is Luke with you now?”
      * “Yeah,” Anakin says. “Yeah, he is, he’s—well, technically, he’s with Ventress. Apparently they’re friends now.”
        * He sounds half-hysterical, and Ben can’t quite blame him.
      * _“Ventress?”_
        * Ben is truly, completely thrown by this.
        * Of all the possible consequences and encounters and adventures Luke might have had in the past, making friends with Asajj Ventress was about the  _last_  thing Ben would have guessed. The nightmare scenario, of course; himself or one of the clones; Ahsoka; his mother; Vos, one of the other generals—hell,  _Hondo_  would have seemed a likelier prospect than Ventress.
      * A brief scramble on the other side, and—yes, yes, that’s another familiar voice he thought he’d never hear again.
      * “Yes, Kenobi. …you know, this will probably be a hell of a lot easier if you come meet us.”
      * “I…yes,” he says. “…before I do, I should tell you. You may have guessed, I may have—implied, already, but I’m not…I came here tracking Luke.”
      * More scrambling at the other end, and a much younger, slightly breathless voice comes through. “Ben?”
      * Ben is EXTREMELY RELIEVED. Luke is alive, and seems safe and unharmed.
        * (How the hell he ended up in  _Ventress’s_ custody, on the other hand, is still a mystery. …well, that’s a problem to be solved later. Right now, his priorities are: figure out how to fix  _this_  timeline, and get Luke home. The reverse order would actually be ideal but he can work on the first while trying to unravel how to do the second.)
      * Ventress takes the commlink back. “Good, maybe you can give us some actual intel to go on,” she says. “Luke doesn’t know a damn thing, all we can piece together is something awful is going to happen, sometime in the next year.”
        * _That,_  Ben wants to say,  _is the single biggest understatement I have ever heard in my life._
      * “She wants to help us, Obi-Wan,” Anakin says, wrestling the comm back from her and sounding—sounding like this is just one more thoroughly impossible thing to happen today and he is rapidly approaching his limit of Impossible Things. “Help us stop what—whatever’s coming.”
        * And there’s something else there, too; another, familiar note to his voice…
      * “Are you all right?” Ben asks.
      * “Sure. Yeah. It’s…I…it’s just a lot to take in,” Anakin says.
      * Ben doesn’t entirely believe him there, but he’ll deal with that when they meet up.
      * “All right,” he says. “All right. Where can—where can I meet you?”
      * Anakin gives him the address.
      * “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He turns to Ahsoka, who just nods at him—figuring out her place in the world, with relation to the Order or anything else, can wait. Because if Anakin has a  _kid,_  who he clearly didn’t raise, who knows Obi-Wan by another name, who’s now with  _Ventress…_
      * “I’m in, too, Skyguy,” she says, because he’ll probably need to hear it. “I’m not—I’m still not coming  _back_ , but—I’m in for this.”
      * “Okay,” he says, sounding relieved and scared and…so many other things she can’t name.
      * “We’ll see you soon,” Ben says. “In about a half hour, all right?” Another glance at Ahsoka—he’s forgotten travel times, traffic patterns, so his estimate may be off; but she doesn’t correct him.
      * “Yeah,” Anakin says, then hesitates. “Master—”
      * Ben’s heart constricts a little bit, and he hangs up quickly.
        * He can’t–he can’t–just hearing Anakin–he’s dreamed of that so often, of things being as they  _were,_  and…
        * When they get there, he will have composed himself. He will be able to handle it then.
        * But at the moment…
      * Ahsoka blinks at him.
      * He doesn’t say anything for a moment— _I can’t…until I decide what to tell Anakin which…I don’t know, I don’t know if it would be better or worse to tell him the whole truth, about where he’s…I can’t tell Ahsoka, not until I’ve spoken with him._
      * But he has to say  _something._
      * “The future is…” he starts. “In the future…” He trails off.
      * “Oh,” she says. Then, “ _oh,_ ” in a very small voice.
      * And then she hugs him.
        * (He didn’t quite realize how much he needed that, until he finds himself clinging back.)
  * Halfway across Coruscant, Anakin slumps against the wall, staring at the now-silent commlink.
    * …did…did Obi-Wan just hang up on me…?
    * He shakes it off.
    * “I should…uh. I should call…” Because Padme should be brought in on this as soon as possible.
      * And, while he’s Slightly Concerned about spilling everything to Ventress, he’s sort of screwed on that front anyway.
    * “Luke’s mother?” she guesses dryly.
    * Luke immediately perks up, curious.
      * _Does he not know…? But Obi-Wan…_
      * He’s finding it hard to keep track of the questions he wants to ask/needs answered.
    * “I’ll, uh, let me talk to her first, all right?” he says.
    * “Okay,” Luke says.
    * “Okay,” Anakin echoes. “I’ll—uh, I’ll be outside. Just for a minute.”
    * Ventress looks a little disappointed.
      * (She’s curious, is all. Look, there’s a  _reason_  she never really tried flirting with Skywalker. Distraction or no, it’s doesn't actually work very well/isn't much fun with someone  _so obviously taken._  So she has some very strong suspicions on who the mother might be, but, well, she’d only seen the two of them actually interact once, from a distance, and she hadn’t thought even  _Skywalker_  would actually be stupid enough to get down to business with that pretty Senator. Granted, Luke was pretty clear evidence of that, but he wasn’t actual  _proof_ , which she wanted because…)
      * (All right, she hadn’t placed any actual bets on it—who would she have been wagering with, anyway—but if she had… She wants to know how right she was. That's all.)
    * Anakin decides he’s happier not knowing. He pushes himself off from the wall, and—
      * Accidentally…pushes the room away instead…?
      * “Dad!”
      * _That’s a…wow, that’s a…a very strange feeling…Dad…_
      * “He said he was okay…!”
      * “Because he’s an idiot,” Ventress says shortly, somewhere above him.
      * “Shut up,” he says. “…not you, Luke.”
    * He feels Ventress’ hands easing him back onto the floor, which is maybe starting to steady out a little. “Don’t move, Skywalker,” she warns.
      * But he barely hears her, because Luke is on his other side, pressing his mechanical hand, and says, “It’s okay, Dad. Everything’s gonna be okay. Right?”
      * He nods a little; closes his eyes. “Right,” he murmurs. “Everything’s going to be just fine…”
    * And then Ventress finds the burn on his side and everything goes black.



 

To be continued…

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:
> 
> MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE FUTURE  
> After Ben realizes Luke is missing, he sends a message to Bail, and then goes to try and find him…
> 
> (For those of you who follow _Precipice,_ the next chapter should finally be up tomorrow I swear. I haven't forgotten it! <3 ~shadowsong)


End file.
